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§ 

Movement  Toward  the  Reorganization  of 
Secondary  Education 

Charles  Hughes  Johnston 

Professor  of  Secondary  Education,  University  of  Illinois 


THERE  is  no  single  way  to  characterize  adequately  the 
movements  for  reorganizing  public  secondary  education. 
Reorganization  may  refer  to  the  matter  of  economy  by  the 
elimination  of  a grade ; or  it  may  refer  to  a change  in  methods 
of  teaching,  discipline  and  internal  school  management ; or  it 
may  refer  to  a reorganization  of  content  of  instruction  within 
the  various  courses ; or  still  again  it  may  refer  to  a change  in 
administrative  units  within  the  twelve  years  of  the  public 
school  system,  such  as  we  commonly  mean  to  describe  by  the 
terms  six-six  plan  or  the  six-three-three  plan,  etc.  Generally 
current  discussions,  ever  since  the  N.  E.  A.  Standing  Com- 
mittee Report  in  1905  on  “Six  Years ’ Course  of  Study,’ ’ show 
^ confusion  as  to  the  precise  and  distinguishable  issues  in- 
volved. 

Omitting  all  consideration  of  the  problems  of  the  “junior- 
college  annex”  to  public  high  schools,  we  may  speak  only  of 
“reorganization”  as  it  applies  to  the  common  twelve  grades 
of  public  education.  Within  these  grades  any  modification  of 
the  arrangement  of  eight  grades  of  elementary  and  four  of 
high  school  education  represents  some  form  of  rearrange- 
ment, or  “reorganization.”  In  1912  the  U.  S.  Bureau  reports 
nine  types  of  segregated  junior  high  schools — or  combinations 
of  grades,  5th  to  10th,  inclusive — and  reports  six  combinations 
of  higher  grades  representing  senior  high  school  arrange- 
ments. These  and  other  existing  forms  of  reorganization  are 
indicative  of  unrest  and  experimentation.  Likewise,  theoretic- 
ally different  types  of  reorganization  have  been  worked  out  in 
detail  for  cities  of  different  sizes.  The  causes  doubtless  are 
more  varied  than  the  forms  of  reorganization,  some  of  them 


(165) 


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Educational  Administration  and  Supervision 


involving  educational  principles,  some  indicating  adjustments 
for  temporary  convenience,  some  for  economy  merely,  some 
topographical  in  character,  while  some  again  are  merely  for- 
tuitous. It  may  be  that  none  of  the  present  types  of  reorgani- 
zation is  permanently  significant  as  a type.  Some  educators, 
indeed,  claim  that  they  are  all  mere  temporary  makeshifts, 
heralding  some  profound  and  revolutionary  form  of  funda- 
mental school  reorganization  which  will  come  into  existence 
as  we  revise  and  refine  our  educational  ideals. 

The  present  extent  of  the  movement  for  reorganization  is 
of  interest.  The  U.  S.  Commissioner  and  the  National  Bureau 
are  publicly  committed  to  this  reorganization.  The  Com- 
mittee on  Economy  of  Time  of  the  N.  E.  A.  incorporate  the 
same  plan  as  a fundamental  feature  of  their  report.  The 
National  Association  of  State  Universities  has  declared  in 
favor  of  the  same  type  of  reorganization.  A committee  of  the 
North  Central  Association  last  year  presented  a similar  report 
to  that  body.  This  was  adopted.  The  same  association  en- 
larged its  committee  and  instructed  them  to  present  the  details 
of  further  procedure  at  the  1915  meeting.  Ten  subcommittees 
of  the  N.  E.  A.  Commission  on  Reorganization  of  Secondary 
Education  are  likewise  at  work  upon  these  details  of  further 
developments  in  this  direction.  The  State  of  New  York  as  a 
State,  through  its  separate  official  curriculums  for  the  first  six 
grades,  the  intermediate  grades  and  the  high  school  grades, 
virtually  declares  for  its  adoption.  Likewise  the  State  of 
California.  Unanimous  resolutions  from  the  State  Teachers ’ 
Association  of  Washington,  Oregon,  Idaho  and  Montana  favor 
specifically  the  six-six  plan  of  school  organization.  The  State 
of  Michigan,  as  well  as  did  earlier  the  State  of  North  Dakota, 
is  apparently  launching  a campaign  for  a similar  State-wide 
readjustment,  and  the  State  Superintendent  has  published  a 
pamphlet  containing  not  only  urgent  advice  and  lists  of  rea- 
sons for  the  change,  hut,  in  addition,  definitely- worked-out 
plans  for  the  reorganization  of  some  of  the  courses. 

Paralleling  these  official  acts  from  State  offices  come  the 
Universities  of  Michigan  and  Chicago,  with  their  methods  of 
accrediting  and  standards  of  entrance  requirements  read- 
justed so  as  to  recognize  and  to  sanction  this  new  type  of 


Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education 


1G7 


school  organization.  Add  to  these  imposing  actions  of  uni- 
versity faculties  the  recommendations  of  the  directors  of  the 
School  Surveys  of  New  York  City,  of  the  State  of  Vermont, 
of  Portland,  of  Boise,  of  Springfield,  111.,  and  of  Butte,  Mont., 
and  the  movement  assumes  proportions  which  demand  the 
serious  attention  of  students  and  administrators  of  educa- 
tion. From  the  U.  S.  Commissioner’s  Report,  1913,  it  should 
also  be  noted  that  there  is  a movement  in  the  parochial  schools 
which  contemplates  similar  reorganization  steps.  Among 
cities  which  have  adopted  some  form  of  reorganization  we 
may  note  especially  Palo  Alto,  Los  Angeles  and  Berkeley, 
Cal.;  Detroit,  Grand  Rapids  and  Saginaw,  Mich.;  Columbus 
and  Dayton,  Ohio;  Portland,  Ore.;  Concord,  N.  H. ; Trenton, 
N.  J. ; Boston,  Fitchburg  and  Newton,  Mass.;  Minneapolis 
and  Cokato,  Minn.;  Grafton,  S.  D. ; Ogden,  Utah;  Rochester 
and  New  York,  N.  Y. ; Lewiston,  Idaho ; Kansas  City,  Wichita, 
Garden  City,  Neodosha,  Hutchinson  and  Fredonia,  Kan. ; 
Richmond,  Evansville  and  other  cities  in  Indiana,  and  Spring- 
field  and  Quincy,  and,  in  modified  form,  East  Aurora,  Decatur 
and  Urbana,  111. 

The  writer  has  drawn  from  current  literature  on  this  sub- 
ject the  following  reasons  for  the  change  as  advanced  by  its 
advocates,  and  has  formulated  as  many  reasons  against  this 
reorganization,  furnished  by  those  who  prefer  the  present  ele- 
mentary-high school  arrangement.  It  is  instructive  to  note  in 
the  present  stage  of  development  that  reorganization  advo- 
cates are  more  careful  to  champion  some  changes  rather  than 
to  tie  themselves  down  to  any  particular  rigid  form  of  reor- 
ganization, and  that  those  who  resist  the  proposals  of  reform 
are  chiefly  attacking  only  the  dangerous  possibilities  to  which 
it  may  lead,  each  shifting  the  burden  of  proof  to  the  other 
side. 

SOME  OF  THE  ARGUMENTS  FOR  A REARRANGEMENT  OF  THE  SIX 
UPPER  GRADES  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM, 

WITH  THE  FIRST  SIX  GRADES  AN  INDE- 
PENDENT UNIT,  are: 

1.  The  scheme  is  fundamentally  a plan  for  segregating  the 
preadolescents  and  providing  the  unique  environment  re- 
quired with  the  consequent  development  of  the  simple  forms 
of  student  social  activity. 


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2.  It  provides  a better  organization  for  the  grouping  of 
students  with  reference  to  their  varying  abilities  and  their 
physical,  mental,  social  and  moral  traits  at  the  most  critical 
stage  for  this  sort  of  diagnosis  and  treatment.  Organized 
vocational  guidance  and  placement  is  to  be  begun  at  this  time. 

3.  This  scheme  provides  for  an  instructorial  organization 
with  a better  grade  of  women  teachers  and  with  more  men  in 
instructional  force. 

4.  The  teachers  themselves  also  in  this  particular  environ- 
ment will  develop  better  the  particular  traits  required  for  this 
work. 

5.  It  allows  for  a partial  segregation  of  sexes  with  appro- 
priate modification  of  teaching  methods,  of  management  and 
of  courses. 

6.  The  natural  pedagogy  of  some  subjects,  like  modern  lan- 
guage, call  for  this  readjustment.  There  is  also  need  for  an 
earlier  correlation  of  English  language  and  grammar  with  the 
foreign  language  and  grammar,  of  arithmetic  with  elementary 
algebra  and  demonstrational  geometry,  and  of  history  and 
geography.  This  beginning  should  be  made  in  the  segregated 
7th  grade,  or  7th  and  8th  grades,  or  7th,  8th  and  9th  grades. 

7.  It  makes  the  whole  school  system  more  nearly  a unit. 

8.  This  would  leave  the  elementary  school  of  six  grades 
still  freer  to  teach  easily,  without  the  imposition  of  any  scho- 
lastic standards  the  tool  subjects  as  tools,  as  well  as  common 
fundamental  ideals,  and  at  the  same  time  have  most  of  its  time 
and  energy  for  the  natural  unrestrained  and  wholesome  un- 
restricted exercises  of  imagination,  play,  construction,  emo- 
tion, imitation,  etc. 

9.  This  would  also  leave  the  Senior  High  School  proper 
free  to  develop  with  more  distinctiveness  of  function  genuinely 
differentiated  curriculum s of  college  preparatory,  commercial, 
agricultural,  manufacturing  and  the  domestic  science,  sewing 
and  homemaking  arts. 

10.  The  six-three-three  plan  makes  possible  a richer  va- 
riety and  greater  number  of  courses  for  these  children  from 
twelve  to  fifteen  years  of  age;  and  with  this  larger  number 
of  courses,  most  important  of  all,  it  allows  at  a better  time 
that  the  first  year  of  high  school  for  a partial  differentiation 


Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education 


169 


of  curriculums.  (See  the  Portland,  New  York,  Springfield 
and  Bntte  Surveys.) 

11.  The  pupils  will  thus,  by  semi  or  wholly  departmental 
organization  of  instruction,  be  promoted  by  subject,  get  the 
benefit  of  contact  with  a special  junior- high-school  type  of 
teacher,  their  individualities  being  thus  better  rounded  out 
and  developed,  preserved  from  narrowness  and  uniformity — 
or  conformity  to  one  teacher’s  moulding. 

12.  The  reorganization  will  provide  such  vocational  in- 
sights and  inducements  that  a larger  per  cent,  will  remain 
in  school  an  additional  year.  It  also  postpones  for  one  year 
the  transportation  difficulties  of  high  school  attendance,  time, 
carfare  and  other  obstacles. 

13.  It  is  cheaper,  on  same  basis  as  ordinary  7th  and  8th 
grade  work  (see  Hanus’  New  York  Report  and  Bulletin  by 
Superintendent  Rundlett  of  Concord,  N.  H.) ; or,  if  adequate, 
it  makes  for  a better  adjustment  of  per  capita  costs.  (See 
E.  H.  Holland  in  Superintendent’s  Report  of  Louisville,  1912, 
and  Francis,  Portland  Survey;  Elementary,  $40;  Junior  High 
School,  $60;  Senior  High  School,  $80.)  A town  can  often  eco- 
nomically make  over  with  proper  equipment  a grammar  school 
or  old  high  school  building.  (See  Francis,  Portland  Survey, 
pp.  190-1.) 

14.  The  reorganization  provides  for  better  and  more  con- 
tinuous use  of  equipments  for  domestic  science,  manual  train- 
ing and  vocational  courses,  with  a better  set  of  instructors 
who  can,  when  necessary,  alternate  with  the  different  classes. 
(Springfield  Survey.) 

15.  It  becomes  possible  for  bright  pupils  to  complete  their 
public  school  work  beyond  the  sixth  grade  in  five  instead  of 
six  years,  whereas  it  is  not  often  possible  to  do  four  years’ 
work  in  three  years  under  the  present  eight-four  plan. 

16.  The  “ cycle”  arrangement  in  the  secondary  school  sys-, 
tern  of  France  and  a similar  arrangement  of  work  in  German 
secondary  schools  afford  interesting  analogies  to  the  reorgani- 
zation under  discussion. 


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Educational  Administration  and  Supervision 


SOME  OF  THE  ARGUMENTS  AGAINST  ANY  REARRANGEMENT  OF 

GRADES  ARE  : 

1.  In  general,  all  the  plans  increase  the  difficulties  of  school 
organization  and  administration. 

2.  The  child  of  this  age  will  be  confused  in  adjusting  him- 
self to  the  individual  peculiarities  of  so  many  teachers. 

3.  More  difficulty  in  placing  responsibility  for  poor  teach- 
ing, which  will  affect  work  in  all  subjects. 

4.  There  will  be  much  confusion  incident  to  changing 
rooms. 

5.  Teachers  of  one  subject  become  narrowed. 

6.  We  can’t  make  a thoroughgoing  rearrangement  and  re- 
organization with  mediocre  teachers.  Such  intermediate 
teachers  must  have  preparation  of  at  least  high  school  grade, 
and  are  not  procurable. 

7.  The  scheme  requires  specially  gifted  and  trained  prin- 
cipals who  are  not  available. 

8.  The  elementary  school  principals  will  object  to  taking 
away  the  “ pride  and  inspiration  of  their  schools.”  See  also 
the  high  school  principals,  their  numbers. 

9.  The  upper-grade  teachers  who  can’t  be  promoted  to 
this  intermediate  type  of  teaching,  and  who  hence  must  be 
demoted  to  lower  grades,  and  probably  lower  salary,  if  re- 
tained will  strenuously  oppose  this  “injustice”  to  them. 

10.  Inconvenienced  parents  will  object. 

11.  It  can’t  be  accomplished  in  the  smaller  towns  and  cities. 

12.  It  is  merely  a different  name  for  essentially  the  same 
operation.  There  is  no  real  change  in  educational  principles ; 
all  good  effects  may  be  secured  by  improving  the  present 
eight-four  plan  of  organization. 

13.  There  is  grave  danger  of  losing  the  essentially  per- 
sonal influence  of  the  teacher  in  this  proposed  distribution  of 
personal  responsibility  among  so  many  teachers. 

14.  There  is  equal  danger  that  the  many  departmental 
teachers,  ignorant  of  the  child’s  all-day-round  of  school  duties, 
will  overwork  the  pupils  by  the  very  natural,  practically  in- 
evitable over-emphasis  on  particular  subjects. 

15.  It  may  be  well  also  that  the  child’s  age  advancement 
accords  with  our  present  grade  advancements.  It  is  likely 


Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education 


171 


that  it  is  not  desirable  to  save  a year  or  to  change  the  content 
and  method  of  work  and  discipline.  An  enforced  rate  of  in- 
tellectual progress  and  more  complicated  type  of  intellectual 
exercise,  which  the  intermediate  or  junior  high  school  scheme 
requires,  may  be  against  the  fundamental  law  of  the  child’s 
rate  of  maturing.  The  7th  and  8th  grade  stages  may  be  sim- 
ply plateau  levels  in  the  individual’s  life,  nodes,  which  cannot 
he  done  away  with  nor  transformed  by  pedagogic  device  or 
administrative  manipulation. 

16.  The  proposed  plan  brings  in  the  school  lunch  problem. 

17.  It  tends  to  underestimate  the  necessary  amount  of  drill 
work  and  acquisition  of  common  ideas  which  the  present  8 
grade  organization  and  8 grade  course  of  study  aim  to  secure, 
secure. 

SUMMARY. 

As  to  evidence  of  success  or  failure  of  these  experiments 
with  reorganization,  we  have  as  yet  little  that  could  be  called 
proof  either  way.  Superintendent  Bunker  has  carefully  enu- 
merated his  initial  obstacles  encountered  in  Berkeley  during 
the  first  two  years,  and  has  told  how  they  all  were  gradually 
overcome.  Superintendent  Rundlett  of  Concord,  N.  H.,  has 
demonstrated  by  comparative  statistics  how  average  marks 
of  whole  classes  were  raised  with  the  adoption  and  continua- 
tion of  the  scheme;  how  something  like  33  per  cent,  more 
actual  ground  was  covered  during  an  identical  period  in  such 
subjects  as  Latin,  history  and  mathematics,  and  how  the 
scheme  proved  to  be  considerably  cheaper  for  Concord,  N.  H. 
Superintendent  Francis  of  Los  Angeles  has  shown  us  just  how 
and  how  much  it  costs  to  transform  an  old  grade  building  into 
a model  junior  high  school.  Professor  Hanus  has,  as  Director 
of  the  New  York  Survey,  told  that  city  how  much  cheaper  the 
junior  high  school  organization  will  be  to  the  city.  Super- 
intendent Study  of  Neodesha  has  reported  figures  showing 
striking  increase  in  enrollment  and  in  promotion  rates,  de- 
crease in  elimination,  and  greater  interest  of  the  community 
in  the  school  work  following  the  adoption  of  the  junior-senior 
high  school  arrangement.  Superintendent  Giles  of  Richmond, 
Ind.,  reports  the  good  effect  on  general  marks  in  all  subjects 
of  those  boys  who  in  junior  high  school  were  assigned  to  a 


172  Educational  Administration  and  Supervision 

partially  differentiated  curriculum.  He  reports  also  a system 
of  advice  and  guidance,  through  committees  of  junior  high 
school  teachers,  which  seems  to  him  to  be  typical  of  a sort  of 
individual  work  not  so  easily  done  under  the  old  form  of  or- 
ganization. A thirty-five  piece  orchestra  is,  he  thinks,  typical 
of  forms  of  junior  high  school  activities  which  may  be  better 
developed  under  such  a system  of  segregating  the  7th,  8th  and 
9th  grades. 

The  writer  has  found  no  evidence  that  any  of  these  school 
experimenters  would  be  willing  to  return  to  the  old  system. 
While  he  has  found  no  reliable  and  adequate  proof  with  which 
to  convince  those  temperamentally  inclined  to  doubt  the  prom- 
ise in  all  these  new  plans  of  school  administration,  he  has  the 
impression  that  demonstrations  and  proofs  will  be  forth- 
coming. 


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